BREAKING THE CYCLE
Even amid a pandemic, Toronto is on pace for another record year of gun violence, and measures taken to date have done little to halt the trend. Experts and advocates say a new approach is needed
It was among the most alarming takeaways from a gun violence meeting attended by Greater Toronto Area mayors, police leaders and provincial and federal politicians.
Not only were shootings rising, but the victims and the perpetrators were getting younger.
That sobering fact appeared to galvanize the January meeting of the minds, called to address “unacceptable” levels of gun violence across the GTA. From it came a resolve to combat the bloodshed through a host of changes, ranging from increased border security to electronic bail bracelets to greater investments in communities.
But six months and a pandemic later, gun violence is thriving. Young people continue to be both victimized and accused of shooting up homes and neighbourhoods, to deadly effect. In Toronto this year, shootings have injured nearly 100 people and killed 24, nearly half of those victims dying before their 30th birthdays.
Community advocates, criminologists and politicians alike know recent violence is part of a longer-term trend. Between 2014 and 2019, the number of shootings and victims nearly tripled in Toronto, until last year 284 people were injured and killed in 492 shootings.
The issue does not respect city limits. In York Region, shootings increased 500 per cent over the same period, from nine in 2014 to 54 last year. In Peel, there were 30 shootings and two deaths in 2014; by 2019, there were 92 shootings and 12 deaths.
The statistics are both alarming and telling: they underscore how our current efforts to curb gun violence aren’t working.
In some cases, promises for action remain unfulfilled. The first allotment of $250 million in federal funding specifically earmarked to fight gun violence by the Liberal government during the 2019 election, for instance, has still not been handed over.
At the January meeting, Mayor John Tory stressed that the federal money — $50 million a year over five years — is needed “now.”
“It’s very clear to me that they need to get a move on with that $50 million,” said Irvin Waller, a professor emeritus in criminology at the University of Ottawa and author of “Science and Secrets of Ending Violent Crime,” although he noted the amount is “peanuts” in terms of what’s needed.
But, Waller said, there are bigger reasons efforts to curb gun violence, particularly law-andorder initiatives, haven’t yet produced results: “They weren’t really initiatives that were likely to work.”
“The evidence is very clear that the police, courts and prison system have only a limited effect on violence of all sorts, including gun violence,” he said.
Marcell Wilson, a former gang member and co-founder of One by One Movement, a non-profit that works to prevent at-risk people from joining gangs, said now is the time to think big.
“Nothing is too crazy to put on the table now — except what we know hasn’t worked,” he said. “And we seem to be stuck in that cycle.”
Here’s a look at the problem and what could be done:
Gun violence in Toronto this year
Shootings are among few types of crime that have remained constant throughout COVID-19.
So far, the city has experienced gun violence comparable to 2018, when it saw 51 fatal shootings, the highest count in the last decade. And in the number of recorded shootings and deaths, Toronto is outpacing year-to-date statistics from 2019 — the worst year on record for people killed and injured in shootings.
Year over year, gun violence visits the same neighbourhoods in the city.
According to data obtained by the Star spanning 2012 to 2019, the majority of gun deaths occur in the city’s northwest corner, in north Scarborough and in downtown Toronto. Shooting injuries follow the same geographic pattern. Akwasi Owusu-Bempah, an assistant professor of criminology at the University of Toronto, said these are very densely populated and under-resourced areas where, all too often, social and economic marginalization are present.
“Gun violence is often a product of social ills, and that’s where we see a concentration of social ills that’s likely to produce the conditions in which violence emerges,” he said.
Bail and bracelets
Amid a spike in gun violence last summer, Toronto police Chief Mark Saunders said an ineffective bail system meant alleged criminals were all too frequently being released on firearms charges, only to reoffend. Officers rearrested 53 people who were out on bail on firearms charges between August and September 2019 alone, police said.
The provincial government, meanwhile, created intensive bail teams at courthouses in Toronto and Peel Region for Crown lawyers handling firearm-related offences, a measure to ensure bail is denied for people charged with violent offences. That initiative, part of Ontario’s Guns, Gangs and Violence Reduction Strategy, was criticized by many in the legal community, who say it’s difficult to get bail on firearms charges.
Provincewide statistics for 2018 show that while 39 per cent of cases involving firearms charges resulted in the person being detained, 30 per cent saw the accused being released at the bail stage.
Statistics for 2019 were not available upon request, but a spokesperson for Ontario’s Ministry of the Attorney General said from October 2018 to June 2020, the Toronto bail team conducted 716 bail hearings and 92 bail review hearings.
A bail review hearing allows the prosecutors to appeal a bail decision before a Superior Court judge.
“As a result of this initiative, the dedicated bail team has the resources to quickly launch a bail review hearing. They are already familiar with the case, and local gang culture, and can ensure that the strongest possible evidence is placed before the court when the Crown is seeking detention for serious firearm charges,” a ministry spokesperson said.
Those at the January meeting also raised the idea of making electronic monitoring bracelets — which help people on bail stay on track — more accessible. They are used infrequently because the accused have to foot the bill.
Saunders said in an interview Friday that bail compliance is still contributing to gun violence. But he expressed hope that a recent provincial initiative, which covers the cost of the bracelets, will make a difference.
“I think that this could serve a critical role in the reduction of gun violence,” Saunders said.
Bail compliance “continues to be an issue” in York Region, too, said media relations officer Sgt. Andy Pattenden in an email. He added that changes that courts made because of COVID-19 “have not helped the issue,” saying there’s been an increase in the number of people charged with violent offences being released on bail.
Changes at the U.S. border
The majority of crime guns used in Toronto in recent years have been smuggled from the U.S., prompting police and politicians to call for greater vigilance at the border.
According to statistics from late last year, 222, or 75 per cent, of the 296 firearms Toronto police were able to trace between January and October originated in the U.S. In 2018, 70 per cent of sourced guns were from the U.S.
At the January meeting, Joel Lightbound, parliamentary secretary to the public safety minister, said better intelligence sharing between the Canada Border Services Agency and local police was required to allow them to “collaborate more efficiently.”
Asked whether that has happened, a spokesperson for CBSA said the agency has continued working with law enforcement in the GTA.
“While the details and nature of these engagements will not be disclosed to ensure the integrity of intelligence and investigative activities, we are continuing advancements in border intelligence, detection and security,” said Ashley Lemire.
A Peel Regional Police spokesperson said they have a dedicated officer working with U.S. customs officials “attempting to stem the flow of guns across the Canadian/U.S. borders.”
According to statistics provided by CBSA, even with COVID-19 border closures, officials have seized 181 firearms in Ontario alone this year. By the same time last year, they had seized 225 firearms.
Gun control
Two weeks after a gunman killed 22 people in Nova Scotia in April, the federal government banned a range of assaultstyle guns like the one used in the massacre. The move was lauded as a significant step forward by those seeking greater restrictions on firearms.
But gun control advocates say the next step must be a handgun ban. In a statement marking the second anniversary of the Danforth shooting, Ken Price — whose daughter was among 13 injured in the mass shooting that killed Reese Fallon, 18, and Julianna Kozis, 10 — reissued that call. “We must do what other thoughtful nations have chosen to do and prohibit handguns,” he said in a statement on behalf of Danforth Families for Safe Communities.
Bill Blair, Canada’s public safety minister, has said the Liberals’ gun control legislation will allow municipalities to decide that handguns cannot be legally kept within city limits. But Price said that approach could easily create a “patchwork of laws that will sow confusion.”
Critics say a handgun ban would not decrease Toronto’s gun violence problem, because of guns coming predominantly from the U.S. Wilson, the former gang member, said based on what he knows, neither gun bans nor buybacks work, because criminals do not follow any type of law.
More police, more money
As shootings spiked in the summer of 2018 and last year, Toronto police launched multimillion-dollar initiatives to
fight gun violence through increased enforcement.
Both years saw more officers deployed throughout the city in high-risk areas. Last year’s initiative, Project Community Space, saw $4.5 million in funding from all three levels of government.
Neither project resulted in a year-end reduction in shootings, though Toronto police said the 2019 initiative led to higher solve rates for shootings. Saunders said on Friday he considered it a success, in part because of the 247 guns seized.
Critics say these are Band-Aid solutions that don’t address the causes of crime, and perpetuate the idea that policing is the solution to gun violence. A Star analysis in 2019 found when money is granted to or approved by city council, enforcement efforts have been heavily favoured over community interventions.
That trend continued earlier this month, when council rejected a motion asking Toronto police to reduce its 2021 budget by 10 per cent and instead fund community initiatives.
Waller, the Ottawa criminologist, said crime prevention research supports taking 10 per cent of the money governments spend on the criminal justice system and diverting it to initiatives to address social issues including poverty, mental illness, homelessness and substance abuse.
The investment can pay dividends, Waller said, that could eventually provide as much as a 50 per cent reduction in crime.
“I do not understand how any politician with a straight face today can say that increasing the police budget is going to reduce violence. This is just not true,” Waller said.
Asked about city council rejecting the police budget cut, Waller said what’s most important is that council spend the equivalent amount “on the things that work.”
“That’s what is going to save lives. That’s what’s going to stop people from coming out of hospital emergency rooms in wheelchairs. That’s what’s going to reduce the trauma that goes along with shootings,” Waller said.
Funding for youth, community programs Last week marked the official launch of An Ounce of Prevention, a community-based initiative offering free counselling and supports to Black and racialized youth involved in the criminal justice system or who are vulnerable to gang involvement, as well as their families.
The initiative is a prime example of upstream programming intended to reduce or prevent crime by supporting young people and their families.
“The aim … is to create a Toronto where the future of Black and racialized youth is not determined by contact with the criminal justice system,” said Kemi Jacobs, executive director of Delta Family, one of five Toronto-based community organizations that have joined forces to deliver the program.
Funded by Public Safety Canada, it’s an example of the federal government investing in what Blair called “evidencebased, community-led projects that make a real difference in the lives of marginalized communities.”
But advocates have long said governments aren’t supporting enough of these initiatives, which address the root causes of violence, especially with young people.
And when they are supported, there’s too often a ticking timer on funding, something Tory remarked on during the Ounce of
Prevention launch.
“One thing I hope is that Public Safety Canada … gives a 10year funding commitment,” he said, noting a small funding window can see programs cut off just as they are getting traction.
Tory has repeatedly called on provincial and federal governments to increase investments in kids, families and neighbourhoods.
Asked why the first allotment of $50 million promised for gun violence hasn’t yet been provided, Public Safety Canada said “a funding decision by ministers has not yet been made.” In the meantime, the spokesperson noted cities can still access initiatives such as the Public Safety Gun and Gang Violence Action Fund and the Youth Gang Prevention fund.
In 2014, Toronto city council approved a Toronto Youth Equity Strategy based on the provincially commissioned “Roots of Youth Violence” report, which spelled out how to address those root causes. In 2018, the Star found the strategy had failed to deliver on many of its planned programs.
In 2019, Tory vowed to commit the money to fill any gaps and it was only in 2020 that city staff declared the mandate complete.
In July 2018, responding to escalating violence and at the mayor’s urging, council approved an anti-gun-violence plan of more than $50 million. But council approved no new dollars, instead relying on provincial and federal funding.
Today, community aspects of that plan remain largely unfunded despite “repeated requests” to the federal government, city staff told the Star.
The federal government did provide $6.8 million to expand a community healing project using youth mentors working with their peers in targeted neighbourhoods. While the city applied for $32.7 million in grants for community programs like an intervention program to specifically target youth at risk before retaliatory violence occurs, $26 million remains unfunded.
During the 2020 budget process, Tory vowed to increase the budget to tackle community violence by $6 million, including money for new youth hubs — dedicated safe spaces in libraries and recreation centres for young people to hang out, do homework and receive mentorship.
As of July, those programs are moving forward, staff said, including planning for the 10 new hubs.
Farley Flex, co-founder of community-based organization Urban Rez Solutions, one of the initiatives helping deliver An Ounce of Prevention services, emphasized the importance of collaboration to support youth and families.
“The more of us that come together in a collaborative context, the easier the load is,” he said at the Ounce of Prevention launch. “We call it ‘ants moving a leaf.’ ”